Life Set Apart

A Maine Girl Meets a Kansas Boy in the sanctuary of a church in Kansas City. It was Christmas break of 2014 when Nicole was headed back home to Maine for a few weeks in between college semesters. Nicole’s friend/Roommate brought her to church the night before her flight the next morning. The church was packed as it was a children’s Christmas concert. Nicole was oddly enough brought on stage by Buddy The Elf where she was seen by a Kansas boy in the balcony that then proceeded to ask his friends who the new girl was on stage. He couldn’t seem to get her out of his head.

Once the concert was over, he followed her down to the fellowship hall where there was a cookie buffet. Garrett remembers the conversation well, but Nicole pretty much only remembers the cookies…

A few days later, Nicole’s friend was asked by Garrett if he could exchange numbers with the cute Maine girl, but with hesitation in the season she was in, she said it wasn’t quite the time.

Fast forward a month or two when the Maine girl needed a date to her sorority date party… This lead to some chatting on Facebook, then a weekend travel plan to Manhappiness where they had their first group date at Panera, a Sig Kaps at Sea date party, and Walmart (still can’t quite remember why were were at Walmart… but when you live in a house of 80+ girls, someone probably needed something). The Kansas boy must have had a good time because he continually came to visit Nicole every weekend at college the rest of the semester.

One of those weekends, the Kansas boy asked the Maine girl to officially go out, and 24 hours later, she said yes. It wasn’t too long after that they had to spend their first summer away from each other. It was hard to bear the thought, so Garrett made surprise plans to come fly out to Maine, see his girl, meet her parents, and let her know he loved her (which was grueling for Nicole because for the months prior all he would say is I really like you…).

Well, that Summer turned into Fall, where we both headed back to college. Every college break we spent apart, and every school semester we were back on campus again. We knew where this was all headed, but we didn’t know how soon, so when our college years had come to a close in May of 2017, Garrett followed his career plans of becoming an Athletic Trainer in Chattanooga, Tenessee, and Nicole followed along.

That Summer, things started to fall apart for Nicole. It took her a month or more to find her first job where she worked at The Bluff View Art District as the lead Event Coordinator. She grew in this position at work, planned many events, enjoyed her days at the job, but once she made all the changes and updates she could, there wasn’t much going up from there, and she had only been there 3 months. While working full time, she didn’t have a place to live. Well, she did find one place… but it was over the boarder in Georgia, had bed bugs, a weird smell, she had to sleep on an airmattress on a floor yet again. Garrett was very busy with school, and Nicole felt like this just wasn’t exactly the place for her anymore.

Fast forward to Nicole’s birthday when she received a call from her dear friend/previous boss from a place she worked at a destination wedding venue Maine called French’s Point the previous Summer. Her previous boss quickly explained a rennovation project they were undertaking and a change in management, just as they were catching up together. The call ended and Nicole looked at Garrett and said, “What if I move to Maine?” And Nicole quickly hopped back on a call and asked her previous boss the same question, and she quickly responded with, “I was just thinking the same thing!”

One month later, one packed Chevy Cruze with 2 people and all of Nicole’s belongings, 13 hours, and we were in Maine.

The next day, Garrett proposed on a walking path in downtown Bangor under strung lights, over icy pathways & snow, in freezing cold temperatures, while Nicole was wearing her work clothes (because she refused to get dressed up in a dress that day… which she semi-regrets to this day).

A year and a half of finishing grad-school for Garrett, Nicole establishing her career as a Property Manager & Wedding Planner while living with her parents, and visiting each other every 8-10 weeks and planning a wedding. We made it.

We got married on May 18th of 2019 and it was the most beautiful day, 70 degrees, sunny, a cool sea breeze, and a rainbow with no rain… at their favorite place on earth, French’s Point.

They lived in a small rented cottage just down the road from where they worked, with a tiny touch of an ocean view through the trees, in walking distance to the ocean’s edge, and it was one of the most fun, god-provided places to live in a lifetime.

Fast forward a couple of years and we are looking forward to growing our family, all the while paying off student debt, Garrett’s working afternoons/evenings as an athletic trainer, and Nicole’s continuing her job in addition to painting as a side gig and working as the Cafe Lead at The Rock Church. We loved those years of hard work, working towards a common goal, seeing how God provided time and time again. A 90ft pine tree fell on Garrett’s car and we went a year with one car, and even that was a blessing and so fun for us! But we knew our time was coming to an end and our words for that year were “finish” & “focus”. And at the end of 2021, we finished paying off our debt, we got pregnant with our son, we quit all 4 of our jobs, the house we were renting went up for sale, and we moved just 8 weeks later to Kansas to be with family, start new careers of being a stay at home Mom & Garrett a self-taught software engineer. We lived with Garrett’s parents for a year and a half until we could just barely afford our first home.

During our time living with Garrett’s parents, Nicole received some medical diagnosis’, Nicole’s work from home time started to come to an end to focus on her health, and Garrett became the sole provider of income for the family. But at the time Nicole received her diagnosis, she also received a word from God, “Blog.”

So here we are now. Unsure entirely of what the future holds, not even sure what the next couple of months holds for us, our health, our income, our careers, or really truly the whole world around us. But we have a Sovereign God who orchestrated every moment of our meeting, every day of our lives before we met each other, and every day thereafter. He has crafted a beautiful life for us, one that he never told us would be easy or perfect, but all the more beautiful in the hardships when we press into Him, Our Provider, Our Lord & The Way. And He is drafting & placing every day in our life ahead and teaching us how he would like our life to now be lived as a Life Set Apart for Him & His Glory.

Follow along as we (mostly Nicole) will be sharing this story with you as she is called to write this blog, “Life Set Apart.”